linuxgeek: Re: [LINUX_Newbies] How to learn Linux

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Re: [LINUX_Newbies] How to learn Linux

I had a similar reaction to your post as Scott, but let me take a somewhat different tack.

Operating systems are tools to do things. More often people ask "how do I build a deck" than "how do I use a hammer". What do you want to do in Linux? What are you using that tool for? Usual desktop usage? Video/audio editing? Games? Answering that should narrow your focus so you can find documentation in those areas. If you're trying to learn everything that would fall under the Linux umbrella, you're going to be a n00b forever, because there's just so much to learn.

I, too, ran Gentoo for a while, but things kept getting worse (No more sis video support? Why not?). For a while, I would try to fix it, but eventually I decided that this wasn't my own failing, but Gentoo's. I wanted a general purpose Linux desktop that was no fuss, no muss, so I installed Mint. Can I still SSH into a Gentoo server and upgrade the kernel? Yes. Do I have to? No.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if you're having a hard time finding an answer after 11 years, you might be asking the wrong question.

Chad Martin

On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 12:01 PM Scott scottro@nyc.rr.com [LINUX_Newbies] <LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 11:54:16AM -0600, Michael Sullivan msulli1355@gmail.com [LINUX_Newbies] wrote:
> I've
> found hundreds of websites offering tutorials for how to learn Linux,
> but every one of them give a tiny bit of information and no clear step
> how to continue. Basically, I'm at point A. I want to get to point C,
> but have no clear idea where point B is. I have been using Gentoo since
> 2005, but not because it's the "expert" distribution. I use it because
> it's fairly easy to find software that works with my hardware. I
> started using Gentoo shortly after I got the PC I'm typing this message
> on. I seem to have problems all the time, and I'd very much like to
> learn how to solve them myself. I'm the type that would rather do
> without than beg for help from strangers normally, but I feel like I'm
> ALWAYS having problems with Gentoo. I need help, and not a handout. I
> need a hand-up. Can anyone recommend a (free) website or book series to
> help me reach my goal: not to be a noob anymore?

You've been using Gentoo since 2005 and consider yourself a newcomer? I'm
impressed. You already probably know more about compiling a kernel than do
many, as these days, Gentoo is about the only one that needs it. (And
Crux, I think).

Anyway, I don't think there are any be all and end all resources. There is
scripting, programming, networking, databases...each one requires a book in
itself. The old Redhat bibles by Negus were good, at least for RedHat based
systems, they would cover a bunch of things.

The FreeBSD handbook has lots of chapters about doing various system
tasks--there are differences--for example, the commands to manage users and
groups are different, but said handbook has a lot of information.

What works for one person might not work for the next, too. For example,
some people swear by the advanced bash scripting guide, whereas I found it
to have far too many large gaps.

I suppose most of us just muddle along, learning things as we do them. The
Gentoo documentation used to be very good too--but, I don't think there
are too many books that go from step A to step B, in part because people
would disagree about what step B should be.

--
Scott Robbins
PGP keyID EB3467D6
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gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6

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Posted by: Scott <scottro@nyc.rr.com>
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